Stock Market & Financial Investment News

Kansas City Southern financial risk in Mexico 'fairly muted,' says Wells FargoAfter Kansas City Southern offered additional details behind the recently proposed changes to Mexican railroad regulations, Wells Fargo thinks the direct financial risk to the company posed by potential additional competition in Mexico is "fairly muted." The firm believes that the lack of visibility that could be triggered by the change poses some risks to the company, but it keeps an Outperform rating on the stock.

On The Fly: Closing WrapStocks on Wall Street opened in relatively quiet fashion and remained that way throughout the session until a sharp selloff in the closing minutes. For most of the day the averages moved in a narrow range, as the Dow broke its streak of consecutive days with triple digit moves. Like stocks, the oil markets had a quiet session that stood out amid the recent volatility in crude prices. A late day drop prevented the major stock indexes from adding to the big gains they'd notched on Friday. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Chicago Fed's national activity index fell to -0.11 in February, below expectations for a reading of 0.10. Existing home sales rose 1.2% to a 4.88M rate in February, which was below the consensus forecast for them to grow 2% to a 4.92M unit rate. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Kansas City Southern (KSU) declined $9.21, or 7.96%, to $106.48 after the railroad operator lowered its fiscal year revenue guidance to reflect slower year-to-date carload growth primarily from the energy sector, along with a continued deterioration in the value of the Mexican peso against the U.S. dollar and lower fuel surcharge revenues driven by lower WTI prices. The revenue warning appeared to weigh on others in the rail industry as well, with Union Pacific (UNP) falling $4.67, or 3.98%, to $112.78, Norfolk Southern (NSC) dropping $3.87, or 3.5%, to $106.56 and Canadian National (CNI) sliding $1.13, or 1.65%, to $67.24. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was ImmunoGen (IMGN), which gained $1.25, or 16.8%, to $8.69 after Takeda (TKPYY) licensed rights to use the company's antibody drug conjugate technology. Also higher was Tenet Healthcare (THC), which rose $2.45, or 4.94%, to $52.07 after agreeing to combine its short-stay surgery and imaging center assets into a new joint venture with United Surgical Partners International. Tenet will initially own 50.1% of the joint venture and will consolidate its financial results and will have a path to full ownership of USPI over the next five years through a put/call structure, the company noted. Among the noteworthy losers was MEI Pharma (MEIP), which plunged $4.37, or 69.37%, to $1.93 and was downgraded by at least four Wall Street research firms after the combination of Pracinostat and azacitidine showed no difference in the rate of complete remission, the primary endpoint of a Phase II study, compared to azacitidine alone. Also lower were shares of Vertex (VRTX), which fell $5.21, or 3.98%, to $125.79 after reporting data from a study evaluating VX-661 in combination with ivacaftor in cystic fibrosis that JPMorgan said was generally below expectations. INDEXES: The Dow fell 11.61, or 0.06%, to 18,116.04, the Nasdaq lost 15.44, or 0.31%, to 5,010.97, and the S&P 500 dropped 3.68, or 0.17%, to 2,104.42.